Ebola threat under control: Quebec health officials

Charlie Fidelman, Montreal Gazette, Montreal Gazette10.20.2014

UNDATED: In this handout from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), a colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of a Ebola virus virion is seen. As the Ebola virus continues to spread across parts of Africa, a second doctor infected with the disease has arrived in the U.S. for treatment.

The threat of an Ebola epidemic in Quebec is “infinitesimally ” small, top health officials said Monday. Nonetheless, the province is prepared.

The province is adopting a new series of measures, said Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette, accompanied by the provincial director of public health, Horacio Arruda.

To speed detection, samples from suspected cases are now sent to an infectious diseases laboratory in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Arruda said, and results are ready within four hours. The samples also go to the federal infection laboratory in Winnipeg for confirmation within 24 hours.

Officials have accelerated training of health workers on the front lines, in designated hospitals, specialized ambulance teams and information hotlines. Screening and detection protocols continue at airports, and other international points of entry, for passengers coming from countries where the virus is rampant, as prevention is key, Arruda said.

But the Quebec situation differs completely from African nations, said Arruda, adding that the province has been on alert since the World Health Organization declared Ebola an international public health emergency.

“There won’t be an epidemic in Quebec,” Arruda said repeatedly, noting that since April 11 people suspected of contracting the virus were found to test negative. The province successfully handled these cases, according to established screening and diagnosis protocols, demonstrating officials have the necessary means to care for eventual cases detected anywhere in Quebec.

Two Montreal hospitals have been designated to treat possible Ebola cases: Adults suspected of contracting the virus will be transferred to Notre-Dame Hospital of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal. Children and youth will be treated at Ste-Justine Hospital.

Suspected cases from the rest of Quebec will be transported in Montreal-based ambulances with highly trained staff.

A centralized unit has been established to handle the distribution of special protection gear, supplies and equipment.

The Ebola situation continues to evolve and Quebec is adapting; rest assured that everything is under control, Barrette said. “The virus is extremely dangerous, deadly in 70 per cent of cases, but it is also very hard to catch. It’s transmitted through body fluids — not through breathing the same air.”

Quebec nurses and ambulance workers voiced concerns about local safety measures last week when two nurses in Dallas, Tex., were suspected of contracting the illness after treating a patient who returned from Liberia. There was also the nurse in Spain, who has since been declared Ebola free.

Régine Laurent of the federation representing Quebec nurses, said protocols were not clear as to who does what, and representatives of the paramedics union said they didn’t get enough training, nor did they have the right equipment, to transport Ebola victims.

Refined risk procedures

Hospital workers got clear information about containing and treating Ebola although communications with paramedics fell short of perfect, Barrette said. Nonetheless, Quebec has since refined risk procedures with the help of the workplace safety board, the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST).

Health workers have different protocols depending on risk. For example, anyone going to a clinic or hospital with a fever will not be contagious, Barrette said, and so front-line workers don’t need to suit up like cosmonauts. Only once the illness has progressed to the advanced stage with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, that’s when contamination with body fluids is possible, Barrette said.

Anyone coming from an affected country, or who has been in contact with a traveller from an affected country, will be asked to watch for symptoms for 21 days and go into isolation at home at the first sign of flu-like symptoms.

It’s important for patients allerting Info-santé to provide accurate information about their travels. A special ambulance team with the right training and equipment will be dispatched to pick up and transport a suspected case of Ebola to a designated hospital, Barrette said.

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